Devotions

I Cannot Do This Alone

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.
In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.

--- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God Loves You

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? - Romans 8:31-35

It took me a long time to learn that God wants to bless our lives. I always pictured Him as somewhat reluctant to pour out His blessing. As in, "Okay, I guess you can have a little more." But I was so wrong. God wants to lavish all the fullness of heaven on us. He doesn't promise that everything will always be perfect or that He won't sometimes allow difficulty, but He does promise to be the Giver of good gifts to His children. He did absolutely everything He could to find us, to reach us, and to forgive us. Why? Because He loves us, as the following verses tell us.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son."

Romans 5:8 says, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

First John 4:8 says, "God is love."

Romans 8:31-32 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all."

If you've ever wondered if God cares about you, look at what He did for you in His Son, Jesus Christ. God "did not spare his own Son." Question: Did not spare Him what?

Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the humiliation of becoming a man. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, Creator of the universe, became a human being. Imagine the downgrade.

Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the degradation of His atoning work. The mocking, the torture, the crown of thorns were all laid on the precious Son of God because your heavenly Father loves you.

And because God loves you, He did not spare His Son crucifixion. Jesus became "obedient to the point of death," Philippians 2:8 says, "even death on a cross"the most humiliating, torturous way for a person to die. But why did God not spare His own Son?

Because He loves you. He gave the best for the worst. He gave the highest for the lowest. He did the most for the least. That is God's message of love to you and me!

BY MITCH ALBOM FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
November 15, 2008

Every day I have less
In my bank account.

Every day I grow scared
As my losses mount.

Every day there is less
To the house that I own
And the equity in it
Like the wind, has blown.

Every day I see less
On my bottom line.

Every day something worsens
That used to be fine.

Every day in my family
There's worry and stress.

Where we once dreamed of more
We now do with less.

Every day I hear stories
Of a company's worth
Sinking to levels
From before my birth.

And places I shopped
Are now closing their doors.

Big firms I grew up with
Are big firms no more.

Every day I have less
Of a once strong sensation
That the leaders we choose
Are good for our nation.

Every day I think less
Of a boss I respected
Who parachutes out
With his own butt protected.

Every day I see less
Of the country I knew
Of the dreams we encouraged
Under red, white and blue.

Instead I see signs
Of foreclosure and sale
And people afraid
Of what comes in the mail.

I see layoffs and cutbacks
No help for the needy

As billions are given
To the powered and greedy.

And this news, it is endless
It burrows so deep.
It shadows my waking
It's haunting my sleep.

Yet every day I have less
I cannot ignore it.
Something grows clearer
That wasn't before it.

If I still have a job
I am luckier than some.

If I still have my house
It is better than none.

If I still have my wits
There are mouths I can feed.

If I still have my family
What more do I need?

If I still have my health
I am mercifully blessed.

If I think I have little
Someone has less.

Every day I discover
More mercy in me.

Every day I find out
Who my true friends will be.

Every day that I stumble
Or say, "I can't do it!"

Is a day I discover
With God's grace, I get through it.

So I learn a new lesson
If I keep a new score

That every day I have less
May be a day I have more.

The cross is laid on every Christian. It begins with the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

All the miseries and evils which men suffer from - vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

Webster, Noah